


I'm a Wild One

by harrysaintlaurent



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: AU, Boarding School AU, Evak - Freeform, F/M, M/M, wild child au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 15:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harrysaintlaurent/pseuds/harrysaintlaurent
Summary: Wild Child AUWhen Isak proves too much for his parent's to handle, they do the only thing they see suitable - send him off to an all-boys boarding school.Isak is roomed in a dorm with Jonas, Mahdi and Magnus, but things don't start off as well as he'd expected.Head boy Elias decides that as the new kid, Isak is his new target.And above all, he falls for none other than the headmistresses son, Even Bech Næsheim.





	1. One

“Fuck, Isak they’re back!”

At the sound of my name, I turned around to see Chris by the window with his eyebrows higher than I’ve ever seen them before. I knew if he was stressed, I should be too, and I felt the colour immediately drain from my face. Shit, there was no getting out of this one.

Racking my brain for excuses, or ways to even still potentially get out of this, I didn’t see Chris fighting through the bodies to make it half way across the room to where I was standing.

“We need to get the music off, or at least turn it the fuck down,” _so I can hear myself think._  
“Dude, there’s no point now.” Clearly Chris had surrendered. “Half the fucking school must be here, we can’t get them all out.”

I knew he was right. I’d pushed it too many times, maybe I deserved this? It would be useless to even try and cover this up. Looking around I don’t recall ever seeing the living room in such a state. No, there was no running from this. I had to just own it.

“Then let’s give them something to talk about on Monday then.” I smirked, feeling like a complete douche for doing this to my family once again, but that’s the price you have to pay if you want to be popular in school, right? No one gets anywhere with a nice personality. All this lot seemed to care about was drugs and booze and someone else’s house to do it in. I provided them with that, and in return everyone knew who I was.

The killing of the mood and reduction of noise around the house brought me out of my head and back into the room. People can sense parents a mile off, besides me of course. Because if I could I wouldn’t be in this fucking situation.

“Where’s Isak?” I heard my father’s voice, and everyone in the living room and hallway stilled. Knowing he wasn’t asking anyone in particular, people seemed to part like the red sea, clearing a path until his sight finally landed on me. “What is this?”

A year ago, he would have already kicked half the asses in this room out onto the front lawn, but since then, hundreds of parties later, he’d taken a different approach.

“Well it was a party, then you guys decided to come home.” I replied, my hand gesturing towards them, still stood in the doorway. I knew I sounded like a dick, and I regretted the words the minute they left my mouth. I also hated that Lea had to see this, but she’d soon forget it. My reputation wouldn’t.

“Isak, clear the house. We need to speak.” Pulling his scarf off from around his neck, my father hung it on the coat rack next to him. It also held at this moment a few bras, a condom – that even from across the room I could tell was most definitely used – and an inflatable donut. I wasn’t sure which I preferred, the version of events where my father screams the house down, or does this - the ‘disappointed’ act.

“We both know how it’ll end Dad, why not just have it out here?” In my peripheral vision I could see a few people’s eyes widen, and I knew what they were thinking. Did I like speaking to my Dad like this? No. Would I blame it on alcohol later? Of course.

“Isak, honey-“ My mother began, but my father raised a hand and it silenced her immediately.

“There’s nothing to have out I’m afraid, it’s been decided.” Tilting my head slightly and narrowing my eyes, I could feel the lines creasing on my forehead. I crossed my arms across my chest, to complete the fuckboy look.

“And what’s that then?” Go ahead and ground me, none of these people are my friends. I won’t miss anyone. Not even Chris, he just follows me around. Take my phone off me? Awesome, Lea charged me to let me use hers last time, I’m sure that can be arranged again. There’s no punishment he could give that I could care about.

“You’re moving. We’ve transferred you to a boarding school.” If I wasn’t utterly stunned at the words that just came out of his mouth, I’d actually feel kind of sorry for my Dad. Even the way he said it, he just sounded tired of me. I suppose I was too, to an extent. Not a fucking boarding school extent though.

“Dad, what are you-“

“Get these people out of my house, clean it, and then pack your things, I’ll take you tomorrow.”

I had barely even opened my mouth, ready with another snide comment in an attempt to smart my way out of it.

“And don’t even bother saying anything,” he held his hand up, palm facing me, “I don’t want to hear it anymore.”

 

It had gone 3am by the time the house was acceptably clean. My mother helped, despite my father’s wasted efforts telling her to leave it to me. We didn’t speak. But when she told me to leave the bag I had in my hand by the door so she could take it out in the morning, I spoke for the first time.

“Is he serious?” I asked. As rude as I was, I would never be purposefully rude to my mother.

“You’ve done it too many times, honey. We thought getting the police involved last time would-“

“We?!” I cut her off. “You agree with this?”

She lowered her head, but nodded once.

I didn’t say another thing to her. I set the black bin bag down at my feet, and turned away.

Once I got into bed, I fished my phone out of my jean pocket which was strewn across my floor. _At least I got to keep my phone_ , I internally laughed. I had seven new messages, but I could only be bothered with two of them. In fact I couldn’t even be bothered with these two but I knew I couldn’t leave them until morning.

 **CHRIS:** Bro your dad was joking right??  
           Are you actually leaving?  
           Sick party tho dude, had a great time  
           People will definitely be talking about it on Monday  
           Its already all over fb

Oh great, my Dad giving me a bollocking is on Facebook. Fabulous.

Deciding there was nothing much to say, I didn’t reply and tapped onto the second conversation that probably did need answering.

 **SARA:**  This can’t be happening  
          I think I’m hyperventilating  
          This isn’t real right? Maybe I can get my Dad to call your Dad?  
          Isak I love you, I can’t have you taken away from me!

I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t seen Sara all night, and last time she was at one of my parties she was getting off with some third year in my parent’s en suite.

But I knew I couldn’t ignore her, so I did what I do best.

 **ISAK:**  
Love you too x

Lie.

 

When I woke up, I found my phone unplugged on my bedside table, which is definitely not how I left it. Sitting up quickly, and regretting it almost instantly with the head rush that came with it, I scanned the room. Things were missing, there were no clothes on the floor, and my wardrobe doors were actually shut.

Flipping over, shifting my weight to the other side, my eyes widened when I saw my mother sat in the chair in the corner of my room, a mug of something warm clasped in her hands. Part of me was impressed she’d actually managed to sit in it, usually it was covered in random shit.

I opened my mouth to try and speak, but my throat was dry and I was still too tired to even form words.

“I packed your things for you, I hope I remembered everything. If I forgot anything just call or text or whatever, you know your dad or I can run it up to you, whatever it is. Or just buy it, I’ve put some money into your account. I’m not sure how much you’ll need, and I know giving money to a teenage boy is like handing him a grenade, you’ll pull the pin whether you need to or not so don’t worry about spending it on anything you want.”

This was typical of my mother. But if anything, it showed me how she felt. When she was uncomfortable she rambled. Her verbal diarrhoea was luckily something that Lea nor I seem to have inherited.

“I’m actually going?” I forced out. Part of me had hoped it was a dream. Sure I could be a pain in the ass, but boarding school?!

“It’ll be good for you, honey. All of my brother’s went to boarding school, and look how affluent they are.” She tried to reason.

“I don’t want to be affluent, I want to be at home.”

“I know it’s hard. This isn’t a decision we’ve made lightly, but it’s also one that we won’t be talked out of.”

“I haven’t even had a say in it! Don’t you think that’s unfair?” I sat up, using my arms to express myself.

“I’ve lost my son to partying and childish behaviour for the past year of his life, don’t you think that’s unfair?”

Without another word, my mother stood up and left the room. It was then that I noticed my suitcase and another large bag packed and ready to go by my door. Sighing, I threw myself back onto my pillows. I reached out of my phone, the text messages from last night still there and then some. I had 23 Facebook notifications, not that I had any intention of opening those right now.

It was already nearly noon. Deciding to face the music, I got up and got dressed, still not quite believing that this was actually very real.

 

The whole car journey I didn’t say anything to my Dad, and he didn’t speak to me either. Perfect. Mum and Lea stayed at home, since Lea would probably get more upset if she came with us. At least someone would miss me.

I checked my Facebook in the car, not sure if the reception would be any good wherever the hell it was we were going. In the back of my head I was hoping my Dad would do a u-turn and drive me home. I saw a few videos from last night on my timeline, but decided against watching them with my Dad in the driver’s seat right next to me. There were a couple new messages from people (most of whom I didn’t know) all wanting to know one thing. Are you really leaving?

I haven’t got a clue buddy. Not a clue.

We were in the car for about two and a half hours, maybe three. I forgot to check what time we left, but it was definitely long enough to be trapped in the car with my Dad. I could practically feel the passive aggressive anger from last night radiating off of him. And if the car journey wasn’t torture enough, my punishment was about to come true.

My Dad pulled up right outside a huge grey stone building. It looked more like one of those country heritage houses than a school, and on any other given day I might have thought it was somewhat decent. But this wasn’t any other given day, I was being dumped at boarding school by my parents. I had every right to be pissed off, didn’t I?

“You know Isak,” my Dad’s voice shocked me, I wasn’t expecting him to speak, and what with not talking for a few hours it sounded much deeper than usual. “We don’t want to have to do this. I don’t want to have to say goodbye to you, but you’ve given us no choice. We can’t cope with this behaviour anymore. At first the parties were acceptable, but the more popular they became the more wild they got. Your sister found a group of boy’s hot boxing the cupboard under the stairs.” At this I smiled, and tried so hard not to laugh.

“I know, at first I thought it was rather funny too. But the minute your mother and I couldn’t get through to you, it stopped being funny.” His sight landed on something behind me, outside the car and I turned to see what it was. A woman, wearing a grey pencil skirt and suit jacket was walking towards the car, with a bunch of what I assumed were pupils in tow.

They sure has a thing for grey around here.

My Dad got out the car, and walked around the front as the woman got closer. I hadn’t got out the car, I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to be here.

“Hello, Ms Bech Næsheim.” My father held his hand out to shake the woman’s hand, the smile on his face most definitely fake.

“And you must be Mr Valtersen, we’re so pleased you could come.” She replied, her smile most definitely not fake. If I wasn’t completely against this school I would have found her rather welcoming. The pupils that came out with her stood a few paces behind, each of them staring at me. It was only when I shifted my glance from them back to my father that I realised he was giving me _the look_. The one that said _get the fuck out of the car._

Reluctantly, I got out and slowly made my way towards the adults.

“Hello Isak, I’m Ms Bech Næsheim your new headmistress. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Shaking her hand, I found myself smiling back. I muttered a ‘you too’ before dropping my hand to my side.

“This here is Elias, head boy.” She motioned towards one of the boys behind her, but I missed which one she pointed to exactly, there were about six boys standing behind her, all of them looking rather intimidating, except- “And this here is Jonas, he’s what we call your ‘big brother.’ You’ll be sharing a dorm with him, and we’ve given you similar timetables, so any questions and he’s your go-to.”

My Dad stepped across me, holding a hand out to shake Jonas’ hand, and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes. I certainly wasn’t going to shake this guy’s hand. Big brother? Please, he was about half my height.

“Now if that’s all Mr Valtersen, I’ll have Jonas help Isak carry his things up to his dorm.”

“Yes of course, and thank you again, especially on such short notice.” My Dad could be a beg when we wanted to be, it wasn’t like I was a crack head. Then he turned to me.

“We’ll be back for you at Christmas,” he started, and I nearly wanted to ask if he was sure he could be bothered, but I bit my tongue. “Remember to call your mother, she’ll miss you.”

“That’s not my fault, is it?” Again, on any other given day my Dad would have taken the bait and started an argument, but this wasn’t any other given day, and we had a fucking meet and greet party watching us, so he chose to drop it.

We got my bags out of the car in silence, Jonas helping where he could. It’s not that he deserved me to be rude to him, I was just in a bad mood and didn’t need some private boarding school snob to help me carry my shit. I didn’t hug my father when he left. We rarely hugged. The last time we hugged was when my Grandfather had died, and that was years ago. We weren’t hugging people.

I watched his car pull down the long gravel driveway. He was actually going to leave me here. Not sure whether to cry, run after the car, or shut myself off from the world, I chose the latter.

Ms Bech Næsheim was already almost back inside, as well as most of the other boys, but a certain three seemed to be loitering about the entrance.

Jonas and I struggled to roll my suitcases along the graveled pathway, so we each ended up carrying them.

“It gets easier man, I promise.” Jonas could sense my mood, hell even I was getting fed up with my mood and I’d only been in it officially for about 15 seconds.

As we walked closer to the entrance, a boy with short hair and a ‘Head Boy’ pin on his lapel was to my right. Choosing not to make eye contact, I looked straight ahead, facing my punishment straight on. But I wish I hadn’t.

I felt my body fall forwards, and tried to stop myself quickly, which proved to be difficult with a weighty bag slung over one arm, but I managed it, and with the help of Jonas who’s hand reached out to steady my shoulder, preventing me from falling forward any more. As a regained my footing, I turned my head slightly to see ‘Head Boy’ with his foot stuck out, and a mock shocked look on his face.

“You know, I don’t know what you did to get yourself wound up here, but word of advice, don’t mess with me, got it?” He spat.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” I asked, hoping to knock his ego.

“Elias, head boy here. Don’t give me reason to speak to you again.” He took a step closer, and if it weren’t for Jonas’ hand still on my shoulder I’d have taken one too.

I knew guys like this, I knew just how to push his buttons. Turning to Jonas, I decided to wind Elias up a bit.

“Is this guy all there?” I asked, tilting my head toward Elias, “He does realise he spoke first right?” Jonas cracked a smile, letting out a small laugh.

“Just drop it, okay? I thought we were bigger than picking on the new guy.” Jonas reasoned with Elias, who took a few steps back, his minions walking in time with him, before he spat on the ground and turned his back to us walking away.

“You think they rehearse that?” I laughed, and Jonas nodded in agreement.

“Our dorm is on the fourth floor. We have a lot of stairs to make it up, come on.” So I followed a few paces behind.

My mood was all over the place. I wasn’t angry anymore with my parents, just bitter. I wasn’t pissed off with Elias, just confused. I didn’t want to be mean to Jonas, it was just my defence and coping mechanism. And annoyingly enough Ms Bech Næsheim seemed like a nice person, I couldn’t even blame it on her for fucks sake. I had a feeling my mood was going to be much like the rest of this place. Grey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is just something I thought would be fun! I was in such a rush to put this up, but I will go through it and edit it properly
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you all think.
> 
> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated!
> 
> I'll try and update before the weekend is over, depending on whether you guys like it or not so even if one person likes it I'll probably update.
> 
> Much love!


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clear some things up for you guys, I'm not sure how many of you have seen the film Wild Child (if you haven't then go watch it, Alex Pettyfer is on point as always), but I'll be messing with it a little bit. Some things will stay the same, and some things I'll leave out or change. 
> 
> I also wanted to say thank you for the comments on the last chapter, you guys know who you are and you literally all made my day so thank you so much!

“You’re telling me I have to walk up and down those stairs every day?” I huffed, hardly managing to muster the breath to speak. Sure, I wouldn’t be carrying a suitcase every time but that was intense. I was used to the three paces from my room to the fridge.

“You’ll get used to those too. We’re not really allowed to be in our dorms during the day anyway.” Jonas replied. Not allowed to be in our dorms? What the fuck were we expected to do then?

Walking down an old corridor, I took in my surroundings, trying to memorise the way. The walls consisted of wooden panels – _that’s got to be safe in a fire,_ I thought to myself. There were candelabras spaced along the walls, but I presumed from the strip lights above that they were for decoration only. I half expected one of the paintings to start moving, It was the only thing keeping this place looking like the inside of Hogwarts.

“So this is us,” Jonas announced, taking my bag off of his shoulder so it could fit through the door. “We’re room number six, on this floor, but if you get lost or forget just look for this.” He said, pointing at the picture on the wall beside the door.

I could feel my brow furrowing in confusion. Most of the paintings on the walls were either portraits of people whom I presumed were long gone, judging by their clothing, or landscapes. But this stood out like a sore thumb. It was in an old, golden frame, just like the rest, yet the picture was a series of comic strip type paintings. Just as I was about to ask, Jonas read my mind.

“Yeah we have no idea either, presumably the caretaker got the wrong memo.” He laughed, and I followed him in the room, making a mental note to take a closer look at the drawings later.

In the room there were six beds, but three looked completely untouched. The others were quite clearly occupied, however. Jonas set my bag down in the middle of the room, and I followed suit, presuming he was going to let me take my pick of bed. Before I’d even managed to straighten my back completely, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, _tightly,_ and I stiffened at the contact.

“Magnus, chill. Give the guy some space.” Jonas laughed, and my eyes widened at the normalcy of all this.

“Hi, I’m Magnus.” He said, pulling away and offering a hand out for me to take. In a daze, I shook it, muttering my name.

“And this is Mahdi,” Jonas introduced, and the third guy leant forward on his bed. I held my hand out to shake his, but he looked confused by the formality of it, and instead we fist bumped.

“So, you can have whichever bed you want, but as you can see we’ve sort of started a pattern.” Mahdi pointed out. There were three beds on each side of the long room, and each boy seemed to have taken a bed in the corners, leaving an empty bed between them. I nodded, making my way over to the bed in the far left hand corner, setting my bags down at the foot of it.

“So, how are you finding it so far?” Magnus asked, at least I think that one was Magnus. Mahdi and Magnus, why did they have to sound so similar?

“I’m not going to lie to you dude, I already fucking hate it.” He looked so shocked by my response he might as well have taken a physical step back. The other two looked just as offended. Shit. I was going to have to try and fix this. “I mean it’s not exactly ideal is it?” I reasoned.

“Guess not,” the blond mumbled. Fuck. It’s not like I meant anything personal. It’s not like he banished me here.

“Anyway, on the weekend we’re allowed to wear our own clothes,” Jonas said, gesturing to Magnus and Mahdi who were both dressed casually, “but during the week you’ll need to wear the uniform,” he said, pointing at the outfit he currently had on. “Ms Bech Næsheim’s asked me to go down to the store room with you to pick it up, we can go before dinner if you want?” Jonas asked. Poor guy, I assumed he and the rest of my greeting party had been forced to wear their uniforms simply to welcome me and my Dad.

I decided against saying anything. Whenever I opened my mouth it only seemed to make things worse. Plus, it’s not like I was going to make friends with these people. They were simply my roommates. I just had to live with them until Christmas. Until I could go back home and talk my parents out of sending me back here ever again. Instead I simply nodded, stepping back and sitting on the bed.

Lying back on the unmade bed, I took my phone out of my back pocket and unlocked it. Before I could even read any of the new messages that were waiting for me, Mahdi interrupted.

“You probably don’t wanna do that bro, it’s nearly 4:30 and-“

Before he could finish, the door swung open, banging against the bedpost of the bed that I had deduced belonged to Magnus. There in the doorway, stood a small old lady, definitely no younger than late sixties. She wore black head to toe, contrasting with the grey theme they seem to have adopted here.

“I see you’ve settled in, making yourself at home Mr Valtersen.” She snapped. This was not a nice old lady, and I’d known her approximately two seconds. “Sit up straight when I’m talking to you,” she barked, her voice not matching her body at all. “And give me that, there are no phones permitted in the dorms on the weekend after 4:30pm, hand it over.” She held her hand out, I was too stunned to even process that she’d blazed her way over to the end of the bed.

“Are you for real?” I couldn’t help myself. This had to be a joke right? No phones after 4pm, what was this bootcamp?

Judging by the reaction I got, this lady was definitely not used to being answered back. Her eyes widened, eyebrows raising so far they disappeared under her fair hair.

“Detention!” She yelled, “And if you so much as speak another-“

“You can’t do that, what if there’s an emergency. Surely you’re joking?” I interrupted, not quite believing what I was hearing.

“Detention! For the whole dorm,” She muttered, glancing around the room at the rest of the boys, her words sounding even sourer than before – if that were possible.

I heard the other three boys groan, and I saw Magnus’ shoulders slump. _Fuck, way to go Isak._

I sat up, and before I could even turn my phone off to hand it over, the old lady snatched it from my hands and threw it in a small metal bucket, almost like a paint bucket. It was a good thing I had a case on my phone or it’d have been fucked. Narrowing her eyes at me, she whipped around and held her bucket out expectantly at the other boys, who all placed large black phones that looked like they were in fashion before I was even born.

My mouth opened in protest, about to call these boys out, but Jonas sent me a look to stop me. A look that said _I’ll explain later, just shut the fuck up._

After they handed over their ‘phones’, she left as quickly as she’d entered, slamming the door behind her.

“Okay what the fuck just-“ I started.

“That’s Matron. I was about to warn you not to get on her bad side, but it looks like it’s too late for that now.” Mahdi laughed, and Magnus smiled along with him. _Fuckers_.

“Why did no one tell me we can’t have phones? Surely that’s illegal?” Okay Isak, a little bit dramatic. “Well, not illegal but you know what I mean. Why can’t we have our phones? And what the fuck were your phones, surely those weren’t your phones?” I had too many questions. I’d been here for five minutes and somehow already made an enemy with the head boy, alienated my roommates, gotten a detention and had my phone confiscated.

“It’s just one of the rules.” Jonas shrugged. “We can have them on weekends, but the signal here is crap anyway so you just get used to having minimum contact with the world.” He explained. “And obviously those weren’t our phones,” he laughed, pulling an iPhone out of his trouser pocket, waving it in front of me. “Those were decoys.”

“Well thanks for telling me.” I mumbled, laying back on the bed, this time without my phone as an escape.

“Don’t worry, we’ll sort you out with one next week, we’ll get it back for you.” Jonas smiled, and I nodded, resting my head back on the bare pillow shutting my eyes.

 

I woke up with a shake. My eyes shot open, but I had to blink a few times to adjust to the light. It was now dark outside, but the bedside lamps were all switched on around the room, including mine which is what must be blinding me. The first thing I noticed was the hair – Jonas.

“Dude its nearly half past six, we’re going to be late for dinner and you can’t risk pissing Matron off any more.” He laughed, his hand still resting on my shoulder. I nodded, frowning at the harsh lighting the lamp was giving out on my tired eyes.

On the way out the door we stopped to let Mahdi lock the door, and I shot Jonas a puzzled look, but Magnus caught it too and answered instead.

“Some of the older guys like to fuck around in the dorms during dinner.” He explained. People break into other people’s rooms? What kind of school had my parents sent me to? Then again it’s not like they could steal the only thing I cared about – my phone – that had already been stolen from me.

Having absolutely no idea where we were going, I walked a few paces behind the other boys, dragging my feet as I went. What if I hated the food? I didn’t want to eat in a dining hall with other people, I wanted to eat in my room like my mother let me.

After making our way down several flights of stairs, which I was convinced were going to start moving at some point, we walked through a tall archway in what I gathered was the dining hall.

Hall didn’t even begin to come close to describing it. It was like a gallery in a museum. Two long benches lined the length of the room, with the kitchen to the right of us, and down at the far end stood a table, a quarter of the length of the ones already filled with students, placed horizontally.

The next ten or fifteen minutes came and went in a blur. Jonas had to practically drag me by my sleeve to the dinner queue. When we sat down, Jonas was next to me and Mahdi and Magnus sat opposite. I didn’t speak much during dinner, even though the boys did try and include me in their conversations, (which I totally didn’t deserve given the way I had treated them so far).

A feeling washed over me, and I wasn’t too sure what it was. Overwhelming disappointment? I didn’t want to be here, that much was obvious. I also didn’t mean to be rude to these boys, but I was mad. I’m in a bad mood with this whole situation, people do that when they’re in bad moods right?

“Have you seen it, Isak?” Magnus’ voice brought me out of my own head and back in to reality. I felt my eyebrows draw together in confusion.

“Sorry, seen what?” I asked, trying to sound interested. As I dragged my gaze away from the boys and back to the plate in front of me, someone caught my eye. They walked down the length of the room with a high and mighty purpose. Their long strides made walking look like the easiest thing in the world, compared to my fumbling around up there ten minutes prior. I watched them walk all the way down to the other end of the hall, turning my head even to see where they would end up.

“Isak? Dude, is this guy on something?” Magnus asked, directing it at Jonas I presumed. I watched the boy sit down at the table that overlooked the rest. It was empty besides him.

“Who is that?” I asked, tilting my head in the boy’s direction. Mahdi leaned forward across the table to see who I was referring to.

“That’s Even.”

Even. I didn’t think of him as an Even, but it suited him.

“Why was he walking around like he owned the place?” I broke my gaze for the first time, twisting around to face my roommates again.

“He kinda does.” Jonas replied. So he was the popular kid here?

“And he’s allowed to sit on that table, just because he’s popular?” I queried, what kind of school gives the popular kids their own table?

Magnus laughed obnoxiously loud, and a few heads turned to see what was so funny.

“Popular yes, but not as a student.” He added.

If I wasn’t confused before, now I fucking was.

“He’s Ms Bech Næsheim’s son. That’s why he sits there. He doesn’t mingle with the masters.” The three of them laughed, fist bumping each other.

I tried to casually turn my head again, get another look, but as soon as I lifted my gaze I noticed him looking right back in my direction. _Fuck._

“Just ignore him, everyone else does.” Mahdi assured me, and carried on eating.

“The guys he was friends with finished last year. None of us expected him to be back this year, we thought he’d have finished too.”

“Apparently not.” Jonas said, and that was the end of that. I wanted to ask more but I didn’t want to risk sounding like a creep, so I sank back into my daydreaming.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was okay, let me know what you thought.
> 
> As always, comment, kudos and all that jazz if you feel like it!
> 
> Much love!


	3. Three

The next morning I woke up the sound of several footsteps around the room. I tried to sit up, but I was wrapped so tightly in a blanket I couldn’t even move my arms. _Fuck I’m paralysed._ I wriggled my limbs, attempting to free myself from the blanket burrito that I’d managed to roll myself into during the night. Once my arms were free I stretched them above my head, eyes shutting as a wave of sleepiness flooded my body. Anyone would think I hadn’t just slept for a solid nine hours.

I sat up, looking around the room, attempting to squint through my sleep haze.

“Morning bro,” Mahdi smiled. He was already partly dressed in his uniform. All but his blazer. Those ugly goddamn blazers. Jonas took me to fetch my uniform yesterday, and I was already seriously missing the smart/casual policy my previous school had.

 _Fuck, school._ Today would be the first day back. If Chris was right, today would be the day that they were all talking about me. I couldn’t believe it, I went through all that shit and I didn’t even get to reap the rewards.

As promised upon my arrival, not only did Jonas and I have similar timetables, but identical ones. As much as I hated the thought of a ‘big brother’ figure, I was somewhat secretly grateful that I wouldn’t have to face my first day completely alone.

We all got dressed, the boys talking amongst themselves, and trying their hardest to include me, which I also secretly appreciated. I just wasn’t in the mood for talking. For a start it was too fucking early, and secondly I had only known them for five minutes. When Jonas announced that we’d better head down for breakfast, I was glad to leave the confines of this room, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled to start my day either.

“Porridge, are you fucking serious?” I asked, looking at the small bowl in front of me in disgust.

“It’s that or starvation mate, your call.” Mahdi laughed, setting his down opposite me. By the time I had even picked up my spoon Magnus was already half done with his, and clearly had no intention of stopping until the bowl was clean.

“So first up we have Geography, which is pretty straight forward. Mr Beardsley is prone to shouting, but if you contribute and don’t mess about then he won’t have a problem with you.” I completely forgot I’d be getting new teachers, and suddenly I was keen to know how to survive this place. I didn’t want to do well, I wasn’t here to turn my life around as my Dad and Mrs Bech Næsheim thought, I just needed to survive.

“Then we have Personal Development with these boys,” Jonas smiled, fist bumping Mahdi.

“I hate P.D, just a bunch of gay shit,” Magnus complained, twiddling the handle of his spoon around between his fingers, and Mahdi must have caught the look on my face falter.

“Not actual gay stuff, Isak,” he assured with a soft smile. A smile as if he knew. There’s no way he could know. No one knew. I wasn’t even sure if _I_ knew.

“No it’s not anything like that,” Magnus laughed, harder than he probably should have, “It’s just a bit shit. About emotions and that.”

“We had it at my school, not that I ever went to it.” I mumbled, only looking up briefly from the sad bowl of porridge in front of me to catch the shocked look on Jonas’ face, given that it was probably one of the longest sentences I’d spoken to them so far. It’s not as if I hadn’t spoken, I just wasn’t exactly offering up information about myself.

“If you manage to skip lessons here without being caught then let me know your secrets dude, because we have been seriously unsuccessful.” I was about to reply with something along the lines of _you can’t have tried very hard then_ but I bit my tongue. I was already beginning to like Mahdi, and I most definitely didn’t need to alienate the only people willing to talk to me.

“Oh shit!” Magnus exclaimed, tipping his head back in laughter with his eyes scrunched together, “Do you remember when Jonas spent like ten years in Mrs Bech Næsheim’s office for skipping Maths.” He barely managed to finish what he was saying before he and Mahdi completely lost it. Although I had no idea what they were referring to, their laughter was contagious and it was enough to put a small smile on my face.

“We’ve discussed this, I’m not proud of it but I had to beg and grovel for her to let me keep my prefect badge.” Jonas defended, pointing at the pin on his lapel before pushing his breakfast bowl away from him on the table.

“You’re lucky you had Even to put a good word in for you, or you’d have been in some serious shit.” Magnus added, the corners of his eyes with small tears in them from laughing so much at Jonas’ expense.

“You’re friends with Even?”

Fuck. Good going Isak. You hardly speak a word all weekend unless it’s Even related. And judging by the looks on the boys faces, they were catching on too. Apart from Magnus, who was now picking at the porridge Jonas had left in his bowl.

“I was in advanced Maths,” he began to explain, “So I was in a class with him and the rest of his lot. Seemed like an alright dude, especially after he talked his mum out of kicking my ass.” He laughed, running a hand through his hair before sliding back in his chair and standing up.

I looked down at my untouched breakfast bowl, and then up again at Jonas.

“Clearly you aren’t going to eat it, we’ll get you some fruit instead.” I nodded, pushing back on my chair as well and standing up. We said bye to Magnus and Mahdi for now, and I followed Jonas back toward the canteen windows.

I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a table at the same end of the room as the teacher’s table with a bowl filled with water for used cutlery, a rack for empty dishes, and a bin on the floor beside it.

“Just scrape it in there, they’ll never know,” Jonas laughed half-heartedly, and I began emptying the contents of my bowl into the bin, cleaning it out with the spoon.

“Not a fan of oats?”

The voice startled me, and I spun around almost too quickly.

Scratch that. It was too quickly.

I couldn’t stop it, the scene unfolding before me. As I spun myself around to see who it was, the spoon in my hand flung remnants of porridge on to this person’s shirt.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to-“

“Throw it away by all means but you needn’t attack me with it,” he laughed, looking around as if a napkin were to appear out of thin air.

I wasn’t sure whether to run, or help or simply wish for the ground to swallow me up.

Yet again, my facial expression got the better of me and he quickly added;

“It’s okay, I’m not exactly gonna run and tell my mum.”

“I’m really sorry, should I get you a paper towel or something?” I was so embarrassed, and from the giggling I could sense behind me I could tell Jonas was having a great time, at my expense.

“That’s okay I think you’ve done enough, I’m just going to go and change.” His words weren’t harsh, they were the opposite in fact, reassuring almost. But I could still sense the undertones of a telling off. “Next time maybe eat your breakfast, yeah?” And although he added a laugh to it, that one definitely seemed like a telling off.

Before he even had time to leave, Jonas gave Even a quick nod, followed by a small apology for my clumsiness; then yanked me away by the elbow of my blazer, and didn’t let go until we’d left the hall. Thankfully it seemed that hardly anyone had noticed, which I was thankful for. I could’ve dropped the bowl - that always resulted in cheering at my old school. I was grateful for the lack of attention I was receiving here.

“Of all the people to spray porridge on,” Jonas laughed, as we now speed-walked to our lesson.

“Like he said, he’s not exactly going to tell his mum on me.”

“Yeah, no I know that, it’s just sometimes he gets a bit funny about things.”

“Funny about things?” I wasn’t sure what Jonas was implying, but I could sense he didn’t want to talk about it much.

“Last year, he got one of his friend’s expelled. If he doesn’t like someone, he gets his mum to give them a suspension or something.” I strained to listen, but I assumed it’s because we were walking through the corridors, and throwing accusations like this around could have gotten him into trouble.

“What and his mum does it just because he said so?” I asked in disbelief.

“Well not exactly,” he paused, holding a door open for me which lead to a staircase. “He sets them up I guess.”

“Sets them up how?”

“You ask a lot of questions, huh?” Jonas smiled, but I didn’t reply, I wanted him to answer my previous question. “Okay so I don’t know how true this is, probably not true at all but apparently he once convinced a group of guys that it was okay to bunk off and take a trip to town. He told them his mum said he could go with a group of friends and that they’d be excused from lessons to go with him.” At the top of the staircase was another door, which I then held open for Jonas and a boy behind us, before we stepped into a large landing type area, with about five doors around the perimeter of it, which I assumed were classrooms. We stopped outside one labelled A6, and Jonas leant back against a filing cabinet outside it before continuing.

“Anyway turns out that wasn’t true, apparently, they all got suspended for a while and their parents got called but that was about it. Like I said I have no idea if that’s legit or not, but seems like a pretty fucked up thing to do.”

I mulled the story over in my head, it sounded pretty plausible.

“But why would he do that? What does he get out of it?”

“No idea, probably isn’t even true but that’s what went around at the time anyway.” Jonas shrugged, and then we got called into our first lesson of the day.

~ ~ ~

Magnus was right. Personal Development was just as shit here as it was at my old school. At least I could bunk off back then, I couldn’t chance it here.

My thoughts wandered a lot during that hour. I thought about my parents, wondered how mum was coping without me, and if my dad felt any guilt at all yet. I wondered how Lea was getting on. She seemed to be having a difficult time with her friends at the moment, and I hoped that she’d confided in mum or dad about this now I was gone.

I wondered what I was missing at my old school right that moment. Were people talking about me? Probably. They were when I was there, and my disappearance would’ve certainly caused quite a stir. And even though Chris and I weren’t that close, he was the closest thing I had to a best friend. I missed his stupid remarks in class, and just our nonsense text conversations in general.

Then there was Sara. I didn’t even know where to begin thinking about her.

I didn’t want to be with her. I knew that much. I didn’t particularly want to be with anyone for that matter. But I knew if I tried to break it off she’d never let that happen. She definitely had a popularity complex, and the easiest way for her to make sure she stayed at the top of the social ladder was to be with me, as fucked up as that was. We never did anything together outside of school. We just weren’t the same. Nothing in common at all. I did feel slightly bad for not replying to her texts though. She had probably called the National Guard by now for my lack of replies, but there was nothing I could do about it. I needed to sort my phone situation out soon.

And then there was the porridge incident this morning. Every time I thought about it I could feel my cheeks flushing, and my empty stomach churn. Of all the people in the goddamn dining hall why did it have to be-

“Mr Valtersen would you care to share your internal monologue with us?”

It seemed as if the whole class was now looking at me, as the teacher whose name I hadn’t cared to learn or remember interrogated me on the spot. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. It was as if everyone but Jonas, Mahdi and Magnus were getting a good luck at my fumbling.

“Please refrain from staring out the window or I will send you outside for the rest of the lesson where you can admire the clouds from there.”

Dickhead.

I gave a small nod, not feeling the need to say anything. She was probably just trying to assert her authority over me, the new kid. I was tempted to tell her she needn’t bother, and that I’d be gone in a few months, but again I stopped myself from saying what I truly thought.

~ ~ ~

“Can we go into town tomorrow afternoon, during free?” Magnus asked the room.

“Yeah we need to sort Isak out a phone, he’s probably started shaking from the lack of technology in this place.” Mahdi laughed, working through some of his homework on his bed.

“Can we go evening instead, maybe skip dinner and get something on the way back? I’m swamped with work and I really need those frees tomorrow,” Jonas asked, who was ironically listening to music on the end of my bed doing nothing.

“Yeah okay sure, whenever is good I just want to get out for a bit.” Magnus added, pulling his shirt over his head before getting into his bed.

“So is this all you guys ever do in the evenings, eat dinner and sit in here?”

“I mean we have a common room but it’s a waste of time, it’s full of guys from the year above and they just hog the pool table,” Jonas shrugged, although he seemed pretty content with just lying in here.

“The weekends are much better, we need to do something cool this weekend before you attempt to break out,” Mahdi laughed.

“Whatever you guys want to do I’m good with,” I nodded, not wanting to seem to controversial. “I’m just going to go pee,” I announced, already trying to remember the way to the bathroom in my head.

I turned left out of our dorm, since we turn right to go downstairs and I didn’t recall seeing a toilet the few times I’d been that way. At the end of the corridor there was a door to my left leading to a staircase, so I decided to follow my instinct and go right, even though I didn’t remember ever coming down here before. The doors didn’t look like the regular dorm ones, but the old portraits and landscape pictures still decorated the walls so I figured I couldn’t be far.

I spotted a door at the end of one of these never ending corridors, and decided it must be through there. Why on earth was this place built like a fucking maze? To my dismay, it was another staircase, so turned back, but I noticed the **PRIVATE** plaque on the door leading to the corridor I had just come from. Fuck. Was I not meant to be down here?

I felt a rush of panic course throughout my body, I was lost and potentially in trouble. And I still needed to pee.

_Just retrace your steps Isak, go and get Jonas to show you the way._

Just as I began my way back, alarms on the ceiling began flashing red and a loud, incessant alarm began blaring throughout the building.

_Fuck Fuck Fuck._

There was no way I was going to get back to my dorm in time, and I did not want to be caught down here in this supposedly private corridor. Racking my brain for possible escapes, I could hear doors over the alarm being opened and closed again, and what I assumed were the shrieks of Matron hurrying boys out of their rooms. There was no way I could let her find me down here. We weren’t even meant to be out of bed for fucks sake.

Looking around me I panicked, and walked opened the door to my right, praying it wasn’t a teacher’s room.

There was a bed, but it looked perfectly made. The dressers looked untouched, and the TV mounted on the wall was just a black screen. No sign of anyone. I took a breath in, reminding myself to actually breathe before I passed out.

_Okay Isak, just stay in here until the alarms stop and then make your way back._

That’s if they didn’t come looking for me.

_Tell them you were in the toilet. The boys can back you up._

Looking to the left of the room, the en-suite door had been left open ajar, and the light was on which I thought seemed out of place. I stepped back, ready to leave the room and accept the fate that awaited me with Matron. I backed it up, almost all the way to the door when one of the floorboards creaked under my weight. I scrunched my eyes shut and bit my lip, hoping-

“Who’s there?”

I froze on the spot. I could feel the sinking feeling in my stomach drop to my feet, planting me firmly to the ground.

Surely not twice in one day.

“Uhh-,” I paused, tempted to say ‘Magnus’ and let him take the fall for it, but that wouldn’t be right.

“Isak.”

Fuck, when did I get so soft? I would’ve never taken the fall.

“Last name?”

I could hear water being splashed against the sides of what must have been a tub in the bathroom, and I knew I had landed myself in the shit now.

“Valtersen. Isak Valtersen.” My voice came out weak, and I cringed at myself.

“Well, Valtersen Isak Valtersen, luckily for you this is only a fire practice. But usually the point of fire alarms is to leave the burning building.” I waited a moment, just to be sure that he’d finished.

“Yeah I er- I’m new here,” I mumbled, looking down at my hands.

“Well that’s obvious.”

“Okay,” His tone was starting to irritate me. “How do I get out of here?” My voice sounding much more confident now.

“Out the door, to the right and straight down.” I nodded, and then internally rolled my eyes when I realised he couldn’t see me. “Oh, and don’t get caught.”

“Excellent point.” I replied, before opening the door to his room as quickly as possible and leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey hey hey!
> 
> Kudos would be lovely but if you leave me a comment I'll love you even more!
> 
> Much love!


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